Evernote and the Family History Traveler

Evernote is a popular choice for family historians. It’s
been well documented as an excellent tool

for research. As a family history
writer, it is also very much a part of my writing life. I outlined in detail how I combine Scrivener and Evernote to create my
personal workflow for writing family stories, in my ebook Getting Ready to Write.

However, today I want to look at Evernote as a travel app
for your next family history trip. Regardless of whether it’s a one day trip to
an archive or you’re crossing an ocean to an ancestral hometown, the Evernote
app can be an incredibly useful tool in organizing and preserving your trip information and memories.

Let’s break it down for a moment and dream we are
heading over to France to research our family lines. Here’s how you'll organize your trip in Evernote, essentially creating your own travel app.

First make a stack for your trip. A stack is
basically a collection of notebooks or files. Give this stack a name, call it France Trip or whatever fits your fancy. Each one
of the notebooks in the stack will house a different group of items for your
trip.

Here
are the various notebooks you can create in your France Trip Stack.

Travel Documents and Contact Information

Itinerary

Research

Travel Journal

Make a shortcut for this file so that when
you open up the Evernote app on your smartphone the Stack will be easily
available, no hunting for it. While you have the app open on your phone go into

Settings àPremiumàOffline Notebooks

In
here, you have the ability to designate which notebooks you would like to access
while offline. This comes in handy if you’re traveling internationally or
somewhere that you may not have Wi-Fi access. While you are in the premium settings you can
passcode protect these files giving you extra security. These are both premium features, along with
extra storage, the ability to search within documents, note history and shared
notebooks. If you’re not a premium user and on a budget, Evernote has a budget friendly
$5.00 a month option, just revert back to your free version after your trip is
over.

Now let’s take a look at what we will file
in each of these notebooks for your family history trip.

Travel
Documents and Contact Information

A scan
of your passport

Confirmation emails from hotels

Car
rentals agreements

Contact
information and emergency numbers

Immunization
records

Airline ticket

Receipts

As you begin making your travel plans keep
a digital copy of all of the above items in your travel documents notebook. A great way to reduce the paperwork you carry
with you, or if you still feel more comfortable with a piece of paper then feel secure knowing you have a digital copy should the hard copy go missing. Of course, you must carry a hard copy of your passport, but keeping a back up in your Evernote app is a little added insurance.

Even your airline ticket can be saved into
Evernote, no paper required. Check in online, and save your digital boarding pass to
Evernote. When you get to the airport open up the Evernote app on your phone
and scan your digital boarding pass at the handy kiosks to print out your
luggage tags, a great way to avoid lining up. Even passing through security and customs,
just show them your phone opened to your boarding pass; really, I’ve done it,
very easy. I know it’s hard to break
away from the paper but it can be done.

While on your research trip, photograph
all your receipts as you go. It helps you keep a handle on your expenses and your
budget. If your trip is business related, all the more reason to scan your
receipts into Evernote and keep them organized. No more searching for missing receipts at the
end of the trip when you need to declare them to customs or your spouse.

Do you forget where you parked in the
airport parking lot? Snap a picture of the location markers before you leave so
you can find your way back to your car a week or two later, save the picture in
your travel documents.

Renting a car, take a photo of the car from
multiple angles before you leave, including the license plate and scan the paperwork
right into your travel document notebook.

The camera options include capturing
post-it notes, documents, and business cards as well as your typical photo,
making it an easy one-step process located within the Evernote app.

Itinerary

To- do lists

Maps

Reference information

Transporation Maps

Restaurant recommendations

In this notebook you can keep a day by day
plan of your trip. You can keep various to-do lists, The Must See, Like To See
and If There’s Time lists. It’s always good to prioritize your time before you
leave. I believe in having a plan that has room for flexibility.

In this notebook, you can file articles and guides you been reading prior to your trip. Save them for easy
reference to times, ticket prices and locations. Keep maps,
town maps along with any transportation maps you require such as buses, trains
and subways. Include in this notebook, a
list of recommended restaurants with addresses along with the archives, museums and
cemeteries you wish to visit–with location and hours of operation. The
itinerary notebook is a great place to save anything and everything having to
do with your sightseeing activities for your trip.

Research
Notebook

Research plan

Documents

Pedigree charts

Group sheets

In this notebook you want to keep all
information about your planned research. Start with a well
thought out and identified research plan. Include group sheets, documents,
pedigree charts and any information you may want to reference during your
research. Take as much as you like no weight limit here, no heavy binders to
carry. If you wish you can have more than one research notebook, consider
designating a different notebook for each surname or ancestor you will be researching
on the family history trip. If you already have a research notebook set up, you
can temporarily relocate that notebook into your Trip Stack for the duration of
your time away, no need to duplicate your work.

Travel
Journal

Pictures

Notes

Audio recordings

Now that you used the Evernote app to plan
and prep for your research trip consider its capabilities for capturing your
memories while on your trip. This is
really where I found it to be huge breakthrough in my travelling routine.

I
love to keep a travel journal. As a writer, a travel journal is so important to
capturing the sights, sounds and smells of the world around me. Of course, if I’m
travelling to an ancestral hometown, a travel journal is a great tool to record my journey while I walk in my ancestor’s footsteps. Even if it is just
a single day jaunt to a nearby archive, I love to note the environment around
me. It fuels my writing on every level, regardless of whether it’s a blog post,
article, family history story or fictional writing.

The one problem with travel journals...

They are a task. I don’t like to
carry a journal on my day to day excursions. I like to write in my journal when I get
back to the hotel at night. Sometimes that can be an overwhelming chore when you’re
exhausted from a day tripping around town. Usually, I have the best intentions but exhaustion sets in especially after a couple of days and writing at night becomes an impossible feat. I convince myself I will make some notes in the morning, then that becomes sporatic, one day turns to two and then the
days start to blur. The idea of keeping a travel journal can be a very romantic
notion. However, I needed to get practical and smart with my time and technology has given me
that ability.

Evernote allows me to save pictures, notes and record audio recordings immediately into my travel journal notebook. If I’m too tired to write
in my journal, I can always snap a picture or add an audio note on the go that will
help me recall my day. With the Evernote feature, I can create notes on the go, not too many, I want to live in the moment but just enough to capture the information I need that I can easily expand on later when I'm rested.

There are two ways you can set up a travel journal.

As I’ve
suggest above, as a separate notebook, tag your notes with country, city and
type of note (restaurant, landmark, archive)

Or

Create a notebook for each city or country you
will be visiting with more detailed tags.

Here’s some things you
can save in your travel journal.

Photos

Within the Evernote app you can take a photo
that will be logged immediately to your travel journal. Snap photos of
attractions, food, people, signs, research and save to your travel journal.
Make a quick annotation and comments at the time or review them later that day
either with a text or audio note. Evernote will auto-tag the picture with the
date and location.

Touring always provides plenty of
insightful information on historical plaques, I like to take a picture of the plaque so you can recall what you read later.

In your travel journal, don’t forget to take
lots of pictures of food, wine bottles and the new favourite beer you had at
that cute little pub. Take pictures of local or quaint stores that you may want to share with family or friends later, on Facebook or in your family history blog. Of
course, you must document the people on your trip, not only your travel companions
but the locals you meet along the way, including the researchers at the archives,
the museum curator, local shop owners; they all add substance to your memories
and your travel journal.

Audio

With the audio app you can also record the voices of those locals, (with their permission of course)whether it's a
tour guide, distant cousins, a museum curator or local genealogist who has plenty of information to share. No mad
writing genealogist required, with a click of a button you are saving your
audio file directly into your travel journal.

After the Trip

Once you've returned home use the Places feature
on the home screen of your phone app to view your notes and their locations.
All notes, whether it’s a picture, text or audio will appear on a zoomable
map of the world. Tap the pins to your
notes and relive your memories.

Evernote is a great tool for planning and recording your
next family history trip. It gives you the features to create your own travel app specific to your trip. Use it to
document the sights, sounds and impressions of your trip, keep your plans organized and documents safe but most of all capture your memories of your next family history trip using Evernote.

8 comments:

What a great post! I just returned from a trip to Scotland two weeks ago. It was my first trip using Evernote to do many of the things you suggested. However, your post has given me even better ways I can organize in Evernote. Thank you. I write my own blog and will be telling my readers about your blog and this post. I am also adding your blog to my reading list. My blog is www.michiganfamilytrails.comDiane

Thanks, Lynn, for another great organizational idea. I use Evernote for just about everything - and am usually pretty well organized. But it's always nice to see how someone else uses a resource. I had never thought about using photos and audio to enhance my Evernote journal. We are so fortunate to have all these wonderful technologies at our disposal - just not enough time to learn how to use every aspect of every one of them. Thanks for the insight.

Thanks Lynn! We can start prepping now for my dream trip to Wisconsin to visit my maternal grandparents' farmstead that just this year we discovered was still standing. You & Evernote are going to help my daughter & I plan wisely and save time, effort & hopefully $$$. Appreciate you sharing this wonderful information with us!

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